Most accurately, it’s because I spent my whole evening sprucing up my Wagoneer for a buyer, so I’m just grabbing the first two interesting cars I found from SF Bay Craigslist. They share one thing in common: both have had engine swaps. Searching for “swapped” yields some entertaining results.

In one corner we have an ’86 Crown Vic that may or may not have been a police car a former life. Under the hood, a swapped-in, mildly upgraded ’89 302/5.0 H.O. motor motivates. Unfortunately, the A/C system has been sacrificed to free several horsepower. The Generic Municipal Grey means it’ll blend into the background of the urban environment without notice. There’s plenty to gripe about, but that $999 asking price ameliorates some concerns.

Heading to our state’s capital, we find thisMitsubishi-cum-Dodge-cum-Mitsubishi with a 4G63 swapped in. To this day, my college roommate’s boosted-to-hell Eclipse (or was it a Talon?) is one of the most incredible and terrifying vehicles I’ve ever driven. Subtracting weight and wheelbase could only make for vehicle both more terrifying and incredible. Its got the typical collection of mods you’d expect (thankfully the boost gauge is on the column, not the A-pillar) and a $2700 asking price.

The Rampage joins the Plymouth Scamp and Ford Durango at the bottom of the Car-Truck notoriety scale. Based on the Mopar L-Body platform, it’s by the Iacocca-era 2.2 four cylinder engine. Fortunately this particular example comes with three pedals and five gears as well. However, unfortunate are a number of stylistic choices the owner has made.

The 19″ wheels stick out most of all (literally and figuratively). While the stock 14×6″ styled steelies never got anyone laid, maybe there’s a more reasonable middle ground at 15 or 17″ that’ll actually allow more than a 12 degree turn of the front wheels. The brown-over-black (primer?) paint isn’t so bad, but that faux carbon fiber wrap on the tailgate…why? Most terrible (but most easily fixed) are the PepBoyZ special pedal covers, steering wheel and shifter. I actually like the “angry eyes” headlight things. Don’t judge me.

Un-dumbed, this could be a decent little runabout as a shop vehicle or something. Based on the number of swaps I see and literally two minutes of skimming forums, it appears raiding the 80s-90s Chrysler and Mitsubishi parts bin enables reasonably straightforward swapping of later triple-digit horsepower DOHC or even SRT Neon motors. Torque steer for days.

Anyway, the auction ends later today and as I type this no one’s taken the seller up on his $4200 opening bid.

English plumber-turned-Youtube sensation Colin Furze built a hoverbike. The contraption you see above kinda-sorta works, which is amazing given how difficult getting the thrust and center-of-mass balance on a thing like that can be. Hopefully he continues to play with it to put it to good use…whatever that might be.

Click through below for a three-part building series on how he did it. His contraptions are great, but the literal “guy in a shed” building/fab tips he has are great.

Interested in getting started in LeMons? A good first step would be to buy an ancient American land yacht or hopeless Porsche to start with. Wait, no. The best way to get started in LeMons is to hitch a ride as an “arrive-and-drive” to see if it’s really for you. Suppose you failed to learn your lesson then, and instead want a bigger piece of the misery pie in the form of your own car. You could start with any number of hopeless craigslist or eBay finds, but buying an already-built car could definitely save a bundle of cash. As we know all too well, previous owner mods go back at half-price on any project car, LeMons included. As we also know, previous owner mods can be done properly or, well, not. Buying a car with a cage that’ll fail tech is a great way to screw yourself.

It ran one race at Sonoma sometime in 2015 (judging by the livery on Eyesore in that picture), so the cage is definitely up to current spec. It’s been sitting since then, will need some motor work and other minor sorting

I have a problem with negative absolutes. “It’s impossible.” “It’s worthless.” “There’s no way you could…” My immediate response? “Is that a challenge?!“. Nothing makes me happier than rescuing something from the scrap bin to extract a bit more utility from it for free.

With all that background, you can imagine what this ’78 Quadravan that’s dropped to $295 is doing to me.

All too often I queue up eBay and Craigslist finds, but never get the time to write about them. As I’m rich in finds, but low on time, we’re going with quantity over quality today.

(And to be honest, was the quality ever that great?)

This IH Pickup with a utility bed and shell will be sold by the time you read this. As I type, it’s a mere $1,584, which would be too much for a “ran when parked” special, were it not this burly of an IH.

(see above for picture) Keeping it late-60s IH, we’ve got this fncking superb Travelall. It was on eBay some time ago, so either it failed to sell or the buyer flaked. Either way, the overall look of oversized tire plus lift(?) is perfect. Four speed plus V8 plus rust in the typical spots. A little over $3k right now.

I was into truck cars before they were cool. Seems like everyone these days wants an El Camino or Ranchero. Hell, even a Rampage or Durango doesn’t get autohipster elite cred. A Scamp, however, represents the pinnacle of “I have to tell everyone what it is” haughtiness. 2.2L 4 cylinder and manual trans for potential, “sitting in barn for several years” and specific mention of “as is” to drive home the hopelessness.

Tithonus is a Greek Titan with a Wikipedia entry. Apparently Land Rover Defender 110 Panel Wagons are also nicknamed “Tithonus”. We’re talking about a mil-spec, diesel, manual 1985 Land Rover D110 here. It’s got a host of cool mil-spec goodies and was modernized with newer seats and endo/exocage. Current bid is $6k, but reserve is unmet. Would love to see it put to use as a camping rig rather than just hoarded as a “collectible” by someone with too much money.

You know what sucks? Bodywork. Dents, rust, paint? BAH. You now what’s not too bad? Nuts-and-bolts drivetrain and suspension work. Then again, as I advised you all long ago, starting with a non-runner really hurts the probability your project car will ever amount to anything.

With all that in mind, let’s take a minute to ponder what looks like a perfect skeleton upon which to build a meaty rock crawler. Despite the TJ front clip and YJ tub, its ’65 CJ6 origin mean it’s smog exempt and sports a slightly-more-useful 109″ wheelbase. The body and frame are in perfect shape. It’s fully caged. In contrast to most “build a rockcrawler from it” donor nuclei, the title and registration are squeaky clean.

Atop the $4,000 asking price, you’ll need to add a complete drivetrain and interior at a minimum. Wiring? Fuel tank? Top? Doors? We’re left to wonder. Were this a typical magazine build we’d be looking at a mid-teens to mid-20s pricetag (ignoring the fact they get most of the parts for free).

Personally, I’d skip well past the top few obvious drivetrain choices (LS, 350, 5.0, 4.3, 4.0, 4BT) in favor of something more asinine, like a 2-barrel 390 with a retrofit TBI EFI system. In fact, the whole drivetrain out of an early-70s F250 would do the job nicely. Then again, we could go more lightweight and grab an all-aluminum Buick 215. Honestly, almost anything can make a mid-sized Wrangler(ish) move just fine. How would you complete this in typical Hooniverse stingy-ass fashion?

For some songs, the remix/cover eclipses the original. Such is the case with the Lotus Seven. Lotus produced the original series from 1957 to 1972, selling about 2500 units. Since then, Caterham took over production of near-complete kits. As the Caterham kits proved too expensive for some, the “Locost” and “Locust” came to be, as well as other kits. Today’s example is an “S1 clone”, and it’s not clear if they mean it is an S1 clone of the original Seven (from noted clone/replicar maker Superperformance) or just a clone of the S1.

Simply put, the looks are a bit off. The tapered fuselage and curved windshield might offer some aerodynamic advantages over the original shape, but they end up more on the fiberglass-kit-car-ordered-from-the-back-of-Motor-Trend end of the spectrum than continuation classic.

All that said, with a Buy-it-Now of $8,500 (and presumably a reserve a little lower), this might still be a great bargain. For that price, you get a Toyota 3TC motor good for mid-high double digits hp with the T50 transmission and rear axle that accompanied it in its original late-70s/early-80s Toyota donor. Unless constructed of depleted uranium, the chassis weighs next to nothing, so that Toyota drivetrain could still deliver a great driving experience for the price…so long as the conversation doesn’t shift to used Miata prices.

The original VW 1100-1600cc engines weren’t great at anything in particular, save being ubiquitous enough for their quirks to enter near common knowledge for a generation of gearheads. They offered mid double-digit horsepower and 20s mpgs in exchange for major maintenance intervals shorter than today’s oil change gaps. Today’s eBay find forces us to wonder: is a 50-ish horsepower diesel a better option?

Listed only as a “1.6L diesel”, we’re left to assume it’s a non-turbo from a late-80s model. How it’s driving those wheels (adapted to Beetle transaxle or somehow using its own) remains a mystery. 40mpg is attractive, and maybe there are some tweaks to be implemented on the motor to get a few more lb-ft or hp, but even then you’re left with a clattering nag of a motor.

We could overlook the shortcomings of the oil-burner were the car in great shape, but the rustbelt location and generally half-assed looking interior suggest otherwise. When the address is in Chicago, “surface rust on floor pan” means “start shopping for replacement metal”. Luckily, it’s only a few hundred bucks to replace all the metal down there. After you’re done with the metal work, there’s the stained headliner and plumbing on the engine to deal with.

Opening bid is already optimistic at $1200, but apparently there’s a reserve. What’d you pay for something like this?